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WASHINGTON – June 22, 2016 – During the home search process, it’s important for buyers to understand the average commute time for each property they’re considering. A recent U.S. News & World Report article shared some commuting-related questions home shoppers should consider when deciding where they want to buy.

How much will your commute impact your lifestyle? “I always ask people how long or how far they are willing to commute,” says Judy Moore, a real estate professional for The Higgins Group Realtors® in Lexington, Mass. “We get a lot of people moving from Boston proper – younger folks who are starting a family and moving out of the city and the ‘burbs. And they figure it’s only 11 miles, so it’s not too far.” However, in rush hour that typical half-hour trip to the airport can easily be closer to an hour, she says.

What are the pros and cons of living farther out? A longer commute may have some benefits, such as possibly better schools or more land. But do those potential benefits outweigh the longer commute?

How will you commute, and what will the costs be? Will you drive or take public transportation? A survey from HNTB Corp., an infrastructure solutions firm, shows that 55 percent of Americans are willing to pay extra for a home if commuting via public transit is an option. Whether taking public transportation or driving your own, home shoppers should factor in costs, such as parking (some major cities charge $30 a day to park in a garage) and gas fees or public transit rides.

Are you willing to pay more? If you want to be in walking distance to public transportation, be willing to pay more for the home but expect some perks from that at resale too. Homes near a train stop tend to sell for higher prices, found a 2013 study by the American Public Transportation Association and National Association of Realtors®. Homes near transit stops outperformed homes in the rest of the metro area by 41.6 percent. “The better proximity that a resident has to a good commuting option, the higher the value of the residence,” says HNTB senior vice president Mike Sweeney.

Source: “5 Questions to Ask About Your Commute Before You Move to Your Next Home,” U.S. News & World Report (June 6, 2016)

WASHINGTON (AP) – June 22, 2016 – Americans still want to own homes – if they can afford to. That’s the finding of a report released Wednesday by the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The pressures of student debt, rising rents and the leftover wreckage from the nearly decade-old housing bust have restrained people’s ability to buy, even though the dream remains alive. The report sees reasons for both optimism (more millennials are poised to leave the nest) and concern (rising numbers of renters face extreme costs).

Those factors could determine whether the share of Americans who are renting keeps rising or whether the nation’s homeownership rate can rebound from a near 48-year low of 63.5 percent.

Here are eight other major trends documented in the report:

More household formation

Americans formed 1.3 million new households in 2015, a return to normal pace of growth. Household formation had floundered during the Great Recession and amounted to a paltry 653,000 in 2013. Much of last year’s increase reflected an aging population in which more households consist of adults older than 65. But the Harvard analysis says the increase in households should continue because of the influx of millennials, which it defines as those born between 1985 and 2004.

During the recession and the sluggish recovery, many millennials returned to their childhood homes or lived with roommates, a trend that limited household formation. But as the largest generation in U.S. history, millennials are reaching an age when more of them will move out on their own. Millennial household formation is expected to average more than 2 million annually over the next several years, a surge that will likely further raise demand for rental units.

Larger houses, smaller apartments

Some people might love those tiny houses built on tractor trailers. But most yearn for extra space. The median size of a newly built single-family house was a record-setting 2,467 square feet last year. By contrast, the median unit in a new multifamily building has shrunk to 1,074 square feet from a peak of nearly 1,200 square feet in 2007. This decline likely reflects a shift in multifamily buildings away from condominiums toward rental apartments.

Home building up but still low

Homebuilders broke ground on 1.1 million properties last year, a healthy 10.8 percent annual increase from the depths of the recession. The problem is that figure still ranks among the worst years in the past half century. “In the long sweep of time, it’s still a pretty small number,” said Chris Herbert, managing director at the Harvard center.

Before 2016, apartment buildings, more than single-family houses, drove much of the increase in construction. But even as developers are stepping up single-family construction, they’re focused less on increasing the number of homes and more on catering to a smaller pool of affluent buyers who can generate more profit per house.

High rent

The government considers renters who spend more than 30 percent of their incomes on housing to be “cost-burdened.” Renters who spend more than 50 percent are considered “severely” burdened. The number of renter households that pay at least half their income reached a record 11.4 million in 2014, rising by 2.1 million from 2008 even as the economy began pulling out of the recession.

Poor dwellers can’t afford food

Compared with those who can find affordable housing, the poorest 25 percent of cost-burdened households spend on average 41 percent less each month on food. These same people also spend less on health care, not to mention retirement savings.

Housing aid eludes the neediest

Just one fourth of income-eligible renters receive any kind of public assistance. The shortfall is the result of inadequate government support, Herbert said. It’s true that the government can cut its housing expenditures by limiting its financial aid. But when people can’t afford rent, it creates an unstable situation where evictions become more common.

Housing instability can often increase people’s dependence on other social programs that raise costs for taxpayers in the long haul, Herbert said. It becomes harder to keep a job or learn in school when shelter is a constant uncertainty and increases dependence on other forms of welfare, he said.

“We can spend a little now, and in the end it’s going to create people who are much more financially stable on their own,” Herbert said.

Clusters of the poor

Between 2000 and 2014, the population in neighborhoods with poverty rates of at least 40 percent more than doubled to 13.7 million. That poverty overlaps with racial segregation. About 25 percent of poor blacks and 18 percent of poor Hispanics live in these high-poverty neighborhoods, compared with only 6 percent of whites.

Aging construction workers

The layoffs after the housing bust left builders with older construction crews. The share of building trades workers older than 55 rose to 16 percent from 10 percent in 2007. Just 13 percent of newly hired construction workers were under 25. Vocational training and immigration could help ease the coming labor shortage as older workers retire. So could opening up the industry to women, who make up less than 3 percent of construction workers.

ORLANDO, Fla. – June 22, 2016 – Florida’s housing market reported higher median prices, more closed sales, increased new listings and fewer days to a contract in May, according to the latest housing data released by Florida Realtors®. Closed sales of single-family homes statewide totaled 25,518 last month, up 4.5 percent over the May 2015 figure.

“Florida’s housing market is growing at a more moderate pace,” said 2016 Florida Realtors®President Matey H. Veissi, broker and co-owner of Veissi & Associates in Miami. “New listings for existing single-family homes rose 5.8 percent compared to a year ago, while new listings for townhouse-condo properties rose 4.3 percent. While tight housing supply is having an impact in many areas, still-low mortgage rates, increased jobs and economic growth will continue to boost housing demand.”

Meanwhile, sellers continued to get more of their original asking price at the closing table. Sellers of existing single-family homes in May received 96.2 percent (median percentage) of their original listing price, while those selling townhouse-condo properties received 94.6 percent (median percentage).

The statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes last month was $221,050, up 10.5 percent from the previous year, according to data from Florida Realtors Industry Data and Analysis department in partnership with local Realtor boards/associations. Thestatewide median price for townhouse-condo properties in April was $165,000, up 4.4 percent over the year-ago figure.

In May, statewide median sales prices for both single-family homes and townhouse-condo properties rose year-over-year for the 54th month in a row, Veissi noted. The median is the midpoint; half the homes sold for more, half for less.

Accordingto the National Association of Realtors®(NAR), thenational median sales price for existing single-family homes in April 2016 was $233,700, up 6.2 percent from the previous yearthenational median existing condo price was $223,300.In California, the statewide median sales price for single-family existing homes in April was$509,100; in Massachusetts, it was $350,000; in Maryland, it was $267,041; and in New York, it was $220,000.

Looking at Florida’s townhouse-condo market, statewide closed sales totaled 10,455 last month, up slightly (0.1 percent) compared to May 2015. Closed sales data reflected fewer short sales and cash-only sales in May: Short sales for townhouse-condo properties declined 40.4 percent while short sales for single-family homes dropped 37 percent. Closed sales may occur from 30 to 90-plus days after sales contracts are written.

“The renewed level of growth we’re seeing for sales of single-family homes statewide this month was largely due to the continued resurgence of local markets throughout North Florida and the I-4 corridor,” said Florida Realtors®Chief Economist Brad O’Connor. “Many of these areas began their recoveries from the previous downturn later than most of the markets in the southern part of the state, so they only recently began hitting their stride.

“In addition, these markets are less reliant on international buyers, so they have not been negatively impacted by recent uncertainty in foreign real estate investment activity.”

Inventory was at a 4.4-months’ supply in May for single-family homes and at a 6.1-months’ supply for townhouse-condo properties, according to Florida Realtors.

According to Freddie Mac, the interest rate for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.60 percent in May 2016, down from the 3.84 percent average recorded during the same month a year earlier.

MOUNT PLEASANT, South Carolina (AP) – June 20, 2016 – It’s a troublesome story playing out across America in the 10 years since the housing bubble peaked and then burst in a ruinous crash: As real estate has climbed back, homeowners are thriving while renters are struggling.

For many longtime owners, times are good. They’re enjoying the benefits of growing equity and reduced mortgage payments from ultra-low rates.

But for America’s growing class of renters, surging costs, stagnant pay and rising home values have made it next to impossible to save enough to buy.

The possible consequences are bleak for a nation already grappling with economic inequality: Whatever wealth most Americans possess mainly comes from home equity. An enlarged renter class means fewer Americans can build that same wealth and financial security.

Nearly two-thirds of adults still own homes. And some who rent do so by choice. Yet ownership has become a more distant dream for the many Americans who still regard it as a route to prosperity and pride. The problem has become especially severe in areas that offer the best job prospects as well as those that have been battered by foreclosures.

“It doesn’t paint a pretty picture,” said Svenja Gudell, chief economist at Zillow, the online real estate database company. “You’re really blocking out a group of buyers from owning a home. They’re truly living paycheck to paycheck, and that does not put them into a good position to buy.”

Joe Fabie and his wife face just such a bind. They moved to Mount Pleasant, just over the bridge from historic Charleston, South Carolina after law school in Pittsburgh. The suburb’s pastel-hued harbor vistas, tin-roofed houses and Spanish moss-adorned live oaks were enchanting.

But the rising rent on their one-bedroom apartment – more than for their three-bedroom rental in Pittsburgh – made it impossible to save enough to buy a home. With their rent going up again, the couple moved to a cheaper suburb in hopes of repaying their student debt and saving for a starter home.

“The best school district is Mount Pleasant, and we would like to be there,” said Fabie, 27. “But if you’re lucky you can get some beat-up homes for around $300,000.”

An exclusive analysis by The Associated Press of census data covering over 300 communities found that two major forces are driving a wedge between the fortunes of renters and homeowners:

Historically low mortgage rates have enabled homeowners to refinance and shrink their monthly payments, thereby reducing a major household cost. The median annual mortgage expense for a U.S. homeowner has dropped by $1,492 since 2006.
A combination of foreclosures and new college graduates crowding into the strongest job markets has raised demand for rentals. Renters accounted for all the 8 million-plus net households the United States added in the past decade. Homeownership has dipped to 63.5 percent, near a 48-year low.
That demand has driven up rents, which in turn have prevented or delayed people from buying first homes.

The government says if you spend more than 30 percent of your pretax pay on housing, you are “cost-burdened.” The total number of renters in that category has jumped more than 30 percent in the past decade, to 21.2 million. Half of all renters are now considered cost-burdened, compared with just 24 percent in 1960.

These trends are reflected in how and where Americans live. Suburban cul-de-sacs built for owners are now tilting toward rentals, especially in such areas as Orlando, Las Vegas and Tampa, where the bubble and crash were especially intense.

After the bust, investors bought distressed houses in these communities at sharp discounts and rented them out. Many of the new tenants belong to Generation X households – ages 35 to 51 – that began renting after the crash, according to the Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Rents have also jumped in areas that absorbed many young college-educated job hunters. These workers have increasingly clustered in areas, including Boston, San Diego and Washington, with abundant jobs but high housing costs. The result is delayed homeownership for a population group that historically had the means to buy.

The AP analysis also found a contrasting belt of stability across the Midwest where the housing boom and meltdown had little effect on homeownership. Rates of ownership remained relatively stable, for example, in Minneapolis, St. Louis and Kansas City, Missouri, where starter homes are comparatively affordable.

But the transformations have been vast in other areas, particularly in smaller suburbs where much of the country lives.

Both before and during the housing boom, farmland around the country was bought cheaply and developed into houses, schools and shopping plazas –a build-out that ignited homeownership. Now, in a twist, many of those cul-de-sacs are occupied by renters living in homes whose former owners lost them to foreclosure.

To see just how drastically the foreclosure crisis transformed certain neighborhoods from the domain of owners into blocks of rental properties, consider the Orlando suburbs.

The shift has been vivid over the past five years in the Piedmont Park neighborhood of Apopka, a former agricultural hub now crowded with housing developments. Where one in 10 homes was once a rental, now more than a third are. Many are owned by Wall Street investment firms that bought them out of foreclosure at deep discounts.

Erika Pringley, a 42-year-old police dispatcher, rented with her husband a three-bedroom ranch house this year. Through a string of subsidiaries, the house is owned by Blackstone, the world’s largest real estate private equity group.

Previously, the house had been owned for eight years by Damian and Eva Elizondo, who lost it to foreclosure in 2013. The Elizondos owed nearly $258,000 on the home; the investment firm bought it for roughly $100,000.

At that price, the equivalent of the monthly mortgage would be under $500.

Pringley’s rent: $1,310 a month.

Pringley, who works for the Florida Highway Patrol, hopes to buy a home – if she can emerge from debt.

Making that leap to ownership is becoming harder for typical Americans. The average first-time buyer makes $84,559, much more than the average household income of $75,037 – the widest such gap in over 15 years, according to an analysis by the online housing marketplace BuildZoom.

The residue of the housing bubble also remains achingly visible in Las Vegas, where the gamble of no-money-down, interest-only mortgages ignited a rush of construction in 2006 that led to mass foreclosures.

Vegas recovered slowly. Tourists returned to the casinos. Population growth picked up as retirees flocked to the Nevada desert. Ikea opened its first Las Vegas outlet, not far from where 8,000 apartment units are planned for construction.

Still, thousands of houses are stuck in the foreclosure pipeline, controlled by banks, and could flood the market should prices recover enough. Nearly half of Las Vegas now rents, compared with less than 40 percent a decade ago.

This closes one of the paths to accruing wealth. On average, homeowners have a net housing wealth of $150,506, according to figures soon to be released by the Urban Institute’s Housing Finance Center. That average climbs to $229,296 for those who own their homes free and clear, making the house an asset that provides a crucial financial cushion.

Elsewhere, rising prosperity is the reason why renters are stuck.

Just as the economy tanked nearly a decade ago, millennials began flooding the job market after college and graduate school. The most educated tended to cluster in cities where jobs were still plentiful, such as Boston, San Francisco and San Diego. They now pay historically high rents – a result of too few apartments to meet demand and too few renters with enough savings to buy.

Over the past decade, the number of under-35 college graduates in Washington rocketed up more than 50 percent to nearly 100,000. Bistros, boutiques and posh gyms opened along the once-downtrodden 14th Street corridor. Builders erected condos and rehabbed old buildings into apartments.

All this has created a paradox in Washington: Incomes are rising – normally fuel for homebuying – even as homeownership is declining. Average household income in the district has climbed an inflation-adjusted 8.7 percent since 2006 to $104,615, according to the Census Bureau. Yet ownership has dipped to 41.6 percent, from 45.8 percent.

Ultra-low mortgage rates have enabled Jim Phillips, 51, to capitalize on the influx, buying condos and renting them at a profit.

“With more and more younger people moving into the city, it’s creating an opportunity for me,” Phillips said. “So far, I have two condos. My goal is to buy, basically, one a year.”

The opportunities are there for people who have money – or those who are already homeowners.

Americans have refinanced $9.4 trillion of mortgage debt after the bubble burst, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. New mortgages at under 4 percent interest have freed up thousands of dollars annually for households in several metro areas, according to Census figures.

Alpana Patel and her husband landed a house in San Marcos, California, about 35 miles from San Diego, in 2007. To buy their $845,000 home, they took out an interest-only mortgage with an adjustable rate starting 6.7 percent. Including property taxes and insurance, their monthly costs totaled about $6,000.

The couple kept paying the mortgage through the housing bust before refinancing in 2013. Their new mortgage charged just 3.75 percent, which shrank their monthly payment by $2,000 and allowed them to build equity.

“We’re actually able to pay down our mortgage, because initially we were just paying interest only,” said Patel, a 42-year-old real estate agent.

The couple eventually decided to rent out that house at a price that covers nearly all their mortgage costs and to buy a second, larger home where they could live.

“Now, we’re able to own two homes because we hung in there,” Patel said.

What the housing recovery presented was a rare opportunity to capitalize on mortgage rates that had never dipped so low in anyone’s lifetime. But even while millions of renters struggle to save enough to buy, many such homeowners have never had it so good.

“They’re basically taking advantage of the changing economics of homeownership in ways that renters can’t,” said Andrew Jakabovics, senior director of policy and research at the affordable housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners.

But unlike their usual methods of venting over the past four years – legislative hearings in Tallahassee, websites, letters to the editor – the opposing sides listened to each other.

And that gave Sha’Ron James, the state’s Insurance Consumer Advocate, reason to hope a consensus might be possible that could head off the gloomy prospect of property insurance rate increases for years to come.

“People who expressed concerns about Citizens [Property Insurance Corp.] were actually talking with (Citizens President) Barry Gilway after making their comments,” James said afterward.

James organized the forum in Boca Raton to ensure participation by the tri-county area’s plaintiff’s attorneys, water restoration companies, insurance industry representatives and public adjusters.

Homeowner insurance rate hikes have been proposed by numerous companies this year, including Heritage Property & Casualty, which seeks an average 14.9 percent statewide increase. Citizens warned recently of annual 10 percent hikes for the foreseeable future if increases in non-weather-related water loss claims and related lawsuits are not brought under control.

Insurers say water restoration companies pressure homeowners to sign over the rights to collect policy benefits after emergencies such as broken pipes or water heaters, then inflate invoices and file suits if insurers deny claims or offer too little. Restoration companies often delay reporting damages so they can complete costly repairs before insurers can inspect, insurers say.

While restrictions approved for Citizens and other insurers limiting emergency repair work may help, “they aren’t the real solution to the problem,” said Sandra Starnes, director of property and casualty review for the state Office of Insurance Regulation.

Restoration companies and attorneys say insurers routinely underpay and take too long to respond to customers.

Accusations were plentiful at the forum, held in the large recruiting room of Florida Atlantic University’s football stadium. But so were suggestions for reforms that participants said shouldn’t be difficult for all sides to accept.

State Rep. Frank Artiles, R-Miami, a public adjuster, called for state regulation of water repair companies. He also proposed requiring them to provide “good faith estimates” before homeowners sign over benefits – which Gilway later said he would support.

Consultant Scott Johnson, speaking for the Florida Association of Insurance Agents, said restoration companies should be barred from offering referral fees in exchange for names of potential customers. Some companies routinely pay as much as $1,500 per referral, he said.

Some of the restoration companies agreed, while Foyt Ralston, spokesman for the Florida Association of Restoration Specialists, said his association favored state licensing and regulation to weed out the worst abusers.

Meanwhile, Paul Schwartz, owner of All Florida Restoration Specialists, said he could accept limiting assignments to just the work being proposed. Insurers say some companies go far above what homeowners expect, sometimes filing suits in homeowners’ names without their knowledge.

“I agree we shouldn’t be removing kitchens” before insurers are notified of losses, he said.

After the meeting, Gilway was seen in friendly conversation with Lee Jacobson, vice chair of the legislative committee for the Florida Justice Association, a trial lawyers group.

NEW YORK – June 15, 2016 – Homebuyers want to know specifics about homes that pique their interest, so they ask questions. However, a number of those questions are the same from buyer to buyer.

Sellers who provide the answers before a question is asked not only save time, they also appear honest and helpful in a potential buyer’s eyes.

Questions almost every buyer asks

How old is the home? When was it last renovated?
How old is the roof?
What structures or fixtures are included in the list price? (For example, is the seller OK with the appliances, ceiling fans, swing set, window treatments and shed being included in the sale?)
What are the home’s annual costs for upkeep? Provide estimates for electric, water, gas, trash, pool maintenance, lawn care, homeowners’ association and any other regular fees associated with the home.
How is the home heated or cooled? How old are the units?
Are there any outstanding permits or liens on the property?
Source: “Sellers: What Every Buyer Wants to Know About Your Home,” RISMedia (June 8, 2016)

NEW YORK – June 6, 2016 – Clear Capital’s Home Data Index (HDI) Market Report releases recent and granular data each month. The HDI Market Report provides insights into housing price trends and other leading indices for the real estate market at the national and local levels.

Florida’s markets continue to recover from the devastating lows of the housing market crash, and an increase in baby boomers provides key insight into the market’s future, according to Clear Capital.

Survey results

Regionally, the West continues to dominate quarterly growth as it hovers around a 1.1 percent quarter-over-quarter price increase, though that’s a downtick of 0.1 percent from last month. Growth rates in the South remain unchanged at 0.7 percent quarter-to-quarter growth, while Northeast and Midwest regional growth continues to lag behind the rest of the nation at 0.1 percent.
Nationally, quarterly market performance remains fixed at 0.6 percent with no change month-to-month.
The Seattle and Tampa MSAs tied for the top spot on the Highest Performing Major Metro Markets for June, each reporting a quarter-to-quarter price increase of 2.0 percent.
Tampa isn’t the only Sunshine State metro area to make the high-performers list. It also includes Orlando (1.7 percent quarterly price growth), Jacksonville (1.7 percent quarterly price growth), and Miami (1.4 percent quarterly price growth).
The most recent quarterly growth figures for the Floridian markets fit into a longer-term pattern of growth and recovery for the state, according to Clear Capital, and each major MSA has “experienced incredible gains since the market lows of 2011, recovering at least 30 percent or more of the individual market value.”

Jacksonville and Orlando home prices have increased 33 percent and 44 percent respectively; Tampa and Miami home prices have skyrocketed by almost 56 percent and 57 percent, respectively.

The baby boomer influence

Clear Capital compared Census Bureau data on baby boomer moves to the price increase from its index, calling the growth in both an “interesting phenomenon that may be contributing to the stellar price growth in the region.”

The most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that this segment of the market – homeowners aged 55 to 74 – has increased more than 2.5X the overall population of homeowners in each of the top four Florida markets since 2011. In Miami and Jacksonville, the increase in homeowners of this generation is more than 500 percent greater than the overall increase in the total population of homeowners.

“It’s evident that the baby boomer demand for housing in the (price growth metro areas) is a significant contributing factor in the market’s overall success,” the report concludes. “In Orlando, the trend is quite similar as the ratio of baby boomer homeownership growth to overall homeownership growth is over 400 percent.”

“Florida has traditionally been regarded as prime real estate by those retirees who may be looking to migrate from colder areas of the nation such as the Northeast to a warmer and sunnier alternative for their golden years,” says Alex Villacorta, Ph.D., vice president of research and analytics at Clear Capital.

“As the top Floridian housing markets continue to grow and return impressive price gains – Tampa is currently reporting 12.2 percent annual price growth – it’s no surprise that this generation continues to invest in real estate in the region,” he adds. “The baby boomer share of homeowners is clearly on the rise here, and as more and more of this generation nears retirement age, Florida markets may be in for a boost in performance if tradition continues and retirees demand homes in the region.”

ORLANDO, Fla. – June 6, 2016 – The Atlantic hurricane season is underway with two named storms already in the books, but one-in-three (34 percent) Florida residents don’t make advanced preparations, according to a recent AAA Consumer Pulse survey.

Colorado State University predicts a near-average hurricane season with twelve named storms, five hurricanes and two major hurricanes this year. But if a named storm sparked evacuation warnings, nearly 18 percent of residents say they won’t leave their homes. Of those who would evacuate, 58 percent say they would only leave for a category three hurricane or greater.

“Residents should stay vigilant and be prepared for a major weather event,” said Gene Calkins, Vice-President of Insurance Agency, and AAA, the auto club group. “Part of that preparation includes having a storm kit, evacuation plan and proper insurance coverage, which includes flood insurance.”

Floods are the No. 1 disaster in the United States, and homes in low risk zones account for nearly 20 percent of yearly flood claims. Just two inches of water in a 2,000 square foot home, can cause as much as $21,000 or more in damage.

However, 71 percent of Florida residents do not have flood insurance, which is separate from homeowners insurance.

“The majority of residents in Florida do not know there is normally a 30-day waiting period for a new flood policy to take effect,” says Josh Carrasco, spokesperson, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “If you wait until a storm is named and heading in your direction, you will be too late. Now is a great time to check with your insurance agent to ensure you are covered before the busy storm season begins.”

WASHINGTON – June 6, 2016 – The number of homebuyers who say it’s a good time to buy dipped to an all-time survey low in Fannie Mae’s latest Home Purchase Sentiment Index.

But homeowners who say it’s a good time to sell soared to an all-time survey high.

The market’s disconnect is likely due, in part, to the limited number of homes for sale in many markets, allowing sellers to face less competition and ask for higher home prices. On the other hand, buyers have fewer choices and are stuck paying those higher prices, sometimes in multiple-bid situations.

“We can partially attribute the sizable gain in April in home selling optimism both to a correction for last month’s unexpected dip and to typical seasonal strength in housing activity in the spring and summer,” says Doug Duncan, senior vice president and chief economist at Fannie Mae.

“Even after accounting for these factors, continued tight housing supply has led to renewed strength in home price appreciation, making selling a home a more attractive prospect this year in particular,” he adds.

Highlights from Fannie Mae’s Home Purchase Sentiment Index

30 percent of Americans say now is a good time to purchase a home – a drop of 3 percentage points from the previous month and an all-time survey low.
15 percent of Americans say now is a good time to sell a home – an all-time survey high.
More consumers think home prices will rise over the next 12 months, and slightly fewer consumers also expect mortgage rates to go up over the next year.
The percentage of respondents who say they’re not concerned with losing their job increased 6 percentage points to 74 percent, nearly a 7 percentage point decrease in March.
The percentage of respondents who say their household income is significantly higher than it was 12 months ago held at 11 percent.
Source: Fannie Mae